FIBA on side of beleaguered BAP

With 98 days left before the SEA Games, one of the biggest concerns facing Filipino sports officials is how to get the FIBA suspension lifted and therefore pave the way for the holding of the basketball competitions in the biennial event on Nov. 27 to Dec. 5.

As it is, there are two basketball associations in the country. There’s the Basketball Association of the Philippines, which has the recognition of FIBA, the world governing body in the sport, and the Philippine Basketball Federation, which has the recognition of the Philippine Olympic Committee.

And with the FIBA suspension in effect, neither group can organize and stage the basketball competition for this year’s SEA Games where the Philippines should be defending the men’s crown.

In a letter to the POC headed by Jose Cojuangco, the FIBA said it continues to recognize the BAP. The FIBA also stressed that no Philippine team can participate in any FIBA-sanctioned tournaments "unless the POC reverses fully and irrevocably the decision taken on June 30 to expel the BAP."

"Until now, that’s the stand of FIBA. It continues to recognize the BAP. So, unless the POC reverses its decision to expel us, walang basketball sa SEA Games this year," said Graham Lim, the BAP’s controversial secretary-general.

"Kung iba sana ang host ng SEA Games, tuloy ang basketball but the Philippines cannot participate. But us being the hosts, sino ang magpapatakbo niyan kung suspended nga tayo? Ibalik na nila ang BAP sa POC para ma-lift ang FIBA suspension," he added.

"Yun ang gusto ng FIBA. Pero kung ayaw ng POC, malamang wala na ngang basketball sa SEA Games."

Cojuangco has expressed confidence that by the time the SEA Games is staged, the FIBA would have bestowed its recognition on the PBF. Otherwise, he said it would be a "black mark" for the hosts if the basketball competition in both men’s and women’s divisions are totally scrapped.

Moying Martelino, the PBF president, recently went to Hong Kong and met FIBA president Carl Ching Menky — seeking the FIBA recognition. The PBF president was accompanied by POC spokesman Joey Romasanta and Go Teng Kok, the track and field president and special assistant to Cojuangco.

"I don’t want to contest what the PBF is doing. Pero mukang obvious na walang nangyari sa lakad nila," Lim said.

The BAP was suspended by the POC last May for its alleged failure to honor a commitment with the Olympic body and the other stakeholders in basketball regarding the formation of the RP team to the recent SEABA Championship in Kuala Lumpur, the forthcoming SEA Games and other future international competitions.

Refusing to roll over and die, the BAP, then under Tiny Literal, underwent a major renovation, naming former Senator and Local Governments Secretary Joey Lina as its new president and filling the board with key personalities like former POC president and presidential daughter Cristy Ramos Jalasco, among others.

At the same time, the BAP kept its "national team" intact and even had a chance to host an international tournament reserved for Asian university champions. The POC took all these as a sign of defiance and eventually expelled the BAP from its roster despite the latter’s numerous calls for reconciliation plus the fact that they had tried to institute changes through a change in leadership.

The FIBA, through its secretary-general Patrick Baumann, expressed disappointment over the BAP expulsion and was left with no other choice but to suspend the Philippines from any international competition sanctioned by the Switzerland-based basketball body.

While all these were happening, the POC gave its blessings to the PBF, which held its own elections last month and, without any difficulty, got the nod of the POC as a new member. Martelino, an old hand in Philippine basketball, was elected PBF president after two other candidates backed out one after the other.